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2 Sheets-Sheet 1. W. H. CLAY. GATE.

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(No Model.)

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2 Sheets-Sheet 2.

W. H. CLAY.

GATE.

Patented Apr. 22, 1890.

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UNITED STATES PATENT QEEICE.

VILLIAM H. CLAY, OF PARIS, KENTUCKY.

GATE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 426,248, dated April 22, 1890.

Application filed July 23, 1889. Serial No. 318,414. (No model.)

To all whom t may concern:

Be it known that I, VILLIAM H. CLAY, of Paris, in the county of Bourbon and State of Kentucky, have invent-ed a new and useful Improvement in Gates, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description.

This invention relates to road or farm and other gates which, while they may be readily opened by persons on foot, may also be opened in either opposite direction by a traveler on horseback or a person sitting in a vehicle by simply pulling on the one end or the other of a rocking beam to release them from their closed latched conditioinso that they will, being tilted out of' the perpendicular, swing open largely or wholly by their own gravity, and which may be closed with like facility.

The invention. consists in anovel construction and combination of certain of the details connected with the hanging and operation of such a gate, substantially as hereinafter described, and more particularly pointed out in the claim.

Reference is to be had to the accompanying drawings, forming a part of this specification, in which similar letters of reference indicate corresponding parts in all the figures.

Figure 1 represents a view in perspective of a gate as applied to a road in its closed position across the road, together with its necessary posts and operating devices, and constructed so as to embody my invention.. Fig. 2 is an elevation looking crosswise of the road, and showing the gate as unlatched and about to swing open. Fig. 3 is an elevation of the gate and its operating devices in part in a plane at right angles to Fig. 2, and when the gate is fully open. Fig. a is a plan view of certain details on line cc, Fig. 2, the same showing a peculiar link-like connection between the upper hook-supports which, with said connection, constitute the top hinge of the gate; and Figs. 5 and G are views in elen vation showing modified constructions of such link-like connection.

A indicates the hinge-post of the gate upon the one side of the road, and B the post on the oppositeside of the road, having an attached keeper Z), with which the spring-latch c of the gate engages when, said. gat-e is closed across the road.

C C are sin'iilar posts to ll on the hingepost side of the road at like distances from the hinge-post A, on reverse sides of it, and each provided wit-h a keeper b for the latch c of the gate to engage with when the gate is a lj usted fully open by being swung back in either direction across the road, according to the direction in travel of the person or ve hicle along the road, eitherof said posts C by its keeper b then serving to hold the gate open.

D is the gate, which has its lower hinge formed of an ordinary eye bolt or piece d, that iits over a lower hook e on the hinge-p0st A. The upper hinge, which also connects the back stile of the gate with the hinge-post, is differently constructed. rlhus, as shown in Figs. l, 9, 3, and i, it is formed of a linkpiece f, perforated at or near its opposite end, and two hooks g g, attached, respectively, the one to the back stile of the gate and the other to the hinge-post, with both of which the linkpiece f engages by the apertures at its ends. Equivalent constructions of this upper hinge-connection are shown in Figs. 5 and G of the drawings. Thus, in Fig. 5 the link or link-piece f, instead of being apertured at its ends, is provided with opposite lower end pins that enter eyes in eye bolts or pieces g g', that take the place of the hooks g g, and in Fig. 6 similar eye bolts or pieces are used, but the link or linkpiece f is slotted at its ends to engage, as by independent pins or pivots g2, with the eyes of the eyepieces. In each or all of these instances, however, the link f is in pivoted connection by separate upright pivots arranged at a suitable distance apart from each other with the projections on the back stile of the gate and. on the inner side of the hinge-post, and these connections, as

well as the lower hook c and eyeb olt d, are fitted so as to have perfect freedom of motion and so that when thegate is fully opened or closed the gate will be upright, or nearly so, and the link f approximately horizontal and in a straight line with the gate, as shown in Figs. l and S 5 but when the gate is being swung into its open or closed positions it will be more or less tilted, and, as represented in Fig. 4, the link f will be oblique to the length of the gate, as will be hereinafter more fully described.

To make the gate hang level, the eye-piece (Z is of the same length, or thereabout, as that TOO of the link f, combined with the projection on the back stile of the gate, to which said link is pivoted at its one end.

E is the rocking beam or lever for releasing the gate from its latched position and for starting or actuating it by a person in a vehicle without getting out of the latter. This lever is made up of a skeleton frame co1nposed mainlyof longitudinal upper and lower bars inclining toward one another and rneeting at or near their opposite outer ends and bolted intermediately of their length to a casting h, which is arranged to rock on a pivot z', that projects from the inner side of the elevated hinge-post A near its top, and said lever is further strengthened and braced to the back of said post bya strap k, tted to rock on a corresponding pivot z" on the backl of the post, and said strap is connected by angling longitudinal braces Z Z with crossbars m m at a like distance from the rocking centerof the lever E on opposite sides of said center. This makes a very light, strong, and neat construction for the rocking beam or lever E, one, too, (which is important,) that presents but very little wind surface. To the lower ends of the cross-bars m m, or, in other words, to the lever E on opposite sides of its center, are attached chains or connections n n, which lead down and are connected at their lower ends to the opposite ends of a swivelpiece s, iitted on a pivot pin or bolt u, secured to the top of the back stile of the gate.

To facilitate the manipulation of the lever E from either one of its opposite ends, said ends have attached to them pendent rods or hangers c r.

In the operation of the gate, supposing the latter to be closed, then by pulling down on the hanger o at either end of the lever E, according to the direction in travel of the person in a vehicle, for instance, on the road barred by the gate, the action will be by the pull on the swivel-piece s and the connection of the link f with the hooks g g or their equivalents to raise the front end of the gate, so as to release its catch c from the keeper bon the post B and to tilt the gate laterally, so that it will largely or wholly open by its own gravity, aided, it may be, if desired, by continuing the downward pull on said end of the lever E, and the gate being thrown fully open and the downward pull released from the lever E it will drop at its front end and engage by its catch c with the keeper b on that one of the posts C toward which the gate has been opened. To close the gate again afterward, the lever E is pulled down upon from its opposite end when the gate will be similarly raised again at its front end to release its latch c from the catch Z2 of the post C with which it was engaged, and the gate will be laterally tilted in an opposite direction and operated as before and through the same connections till its catch c again engages with the keeper Z? on the post B.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

In a inechanically-operated swinging gate, substantially as specified, the rocking beam or lever E, of skeleton construction, composed of upper and lower longitudinal bars converging toward one another at their opposite ends, the central casting h and back-strap k, both adapted to rock on pivots in like axial line with one another, the angling longitudinal braces ZZ, and the cross-bars m m, substantially as shown and described.

WILLIAM H. CLAY. Vitnesses:

J. E. RYLEs, -SoL SPEARS. 

